McTurtle

Thanks for the info. (I'm in Edmonton. I updated my profile so hopefully it shows my location now. )

I found these guys, but I don't know how much the shipping will be. http://www.aquariumplants.com/Aluminum_CO2_Cylinders_CO2_tanks_CO2_cannisters_p/t.htm The price for a 10lb aluminum tank is $79 vs the ~$200 at Oxygen Products. Granted, I have to pay $26 to fill it. Has anyone else ordered from them? Any other suggestions for a good retailer? Thanks!

OK, seems like the LCDs will just be decorative. I'm going to start looking for T5HO fixtures. Thanks for all the input.

Thanks, that makes sense. I think my only hope is to try to discover someone who's done it already, or I'm stuck with trial and error. The commercial aquarium LED light setups seem to do well, but the bulbs may be significantly brighter and I have no way to measure the ones I'm looking at.

The LED wattage is 3.6 for 50 cm which, as far as I can figure is about equal to 8 watts of fluorescent light. One of the 12" fluorescents is 15 watts... So if I have 5 meters, that's about equal to 80 watts of fluorescent light. Or I could be totally wrong.

Does anyone have experience installing waterproof led strip lighting? (The roll is $12 and is "supposed" to be for remote control helicopters etc.) I'm hoping I can create a high light 65 gallon with it, but I'm having trouble figuring out the equivalency to flourescents. From what I can figure 50cm of the stip lighting is equal to a t8 of about the same length. Any input would be appreciated. Second, I have a 10 gallon with 2 t8s in a homedepot ballast behind my tank. Is it going to help at all? I can't fit it on top. I do need to make a better reflector for it...

Thank-you for all of the replies. I've done water testing for ammonia, nitrate and pH. All seem to be within spec and the kit hasn't expired yet. It can't be the silicone since the 2.5 gallon tanks are acrylic and the 10 gallon was bought new and hasn't been re-sealed. I'm not sure about all of the heaters, but the water is at the right temperature when I check it. I don't have a monitoring system for them. I've bleached my tanks, washed them with baking soda, let them dry and now I'm rinsing them with salt water before trying to set them up again. Wish me luck!

I'm using Prime. I buy the small bottle every ~6 months. I tend to over treat the water, but I don't think that would cause this issue. I'm using Edmonton tap water. The tanks are all small. 1 x 1 gallon, 2 x 2.5 gallon, 1 x 5 gallon and 1 x 10 gallon.

No, all the plants have been around forever. Nothing new. I don't think it's the plants as it transfers from tank to tank. I think my next step may be to dose with hydrogen peroxide.

I bought a tank of kiji and since I put it in use all of my fish have become ill/ died. First there was an ich infection. I treated that and there were no more parasites to be found. However, my betta that had recovered from ich got terrible tail rot. I treated with salt water, more frequent water changes, betta fix and then kanomycin and then a fungal treatment. Nothing helped and my poor betta passed away. I cleaned the tank with boiling water, salt and vinegar and replaced the gravel and filter. I let the tank cycle and then put a new betta in. This betta also became pale, clamped his fins and eventually died despite any and all treatments. Something must have transferred to my other tank because that fish also got unstoppable tail rot. In a third tank the betta seems to have symptoms like dropsy. He floated at the top and appeared bloated/constipated. He was not constipated. Epsom salts help him a little, but he still could't dive. I assumed something was wrong with his swim bladder. After 3 months or so he passed away. I cleaned this tank and replaced the fish. New fish then developed the same float symptoms. So there is something causing the problem... My 10 gallon tank has been going for years with no problems. Now I have one guppy left. I am soooo frustrated!!! What can I do to get rid of this pathogen? Is there any way to salvage my plants? What is the best way to clean my tanks? Salt, vinegar and hot water don't do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Do I scrap the tank heaters? I've never run in to this kind of problem before.

Thanks all. I'm 99% sure he's a boy. I know his nest isn't huge in comparison to other nests. It was just a little thicker than most I've seen and I can't figure out what the yellow spots are.

Sorry, double posted....? Please delete.

To the betta gurus out there, I bought this betta as a dragon female. I had "her" in a sorority tank, but she was too aggressive and I had to set up a separate tank for her. She's been on her own since November and I've never tried to breed her because I've had some doubts about her gender. I can't find an egg spot on her, but a) I have very little experience with identifying it and her colouring makes it yet more difficult. Also, I think she has a beard... The last month or so she's developed blue scaling on her face. To me her body shape is male. Also, when I posted her picture in November a few of you thought she was probably a he. I've started adding Indian Almond Leaves to the water I condition for her tank and after her water change two days ago she started building a little bubble nest. Today the nest was much much larger and there are sort of yellow/ off white spots to it. Could she have put her own eggs in it? Is that even possible? I've read that females do sometimes build nests, but this seems excessive. The off white bits could be plant material I guess... Here are the pictures, sorry for the cell phone camera quality. The nest Here she is today November So, any ideas? Is she a he? Any idea what the off colour specs in the nest are? I'd really appreciate any insights you guys may have.

You talking to me, Punk? Any ideas on how I can encourage the split in my SD guy's tail split to heal? I'm doing a 25% water change every other day. He's in a 2.5 gallon at 25C.

Gorgeous!

Neat!

Any chance of female bettas?

My past bettas lived about three years in a heated 1 gallon tank (each). They don't seem to care too much what temperature they're at (within a reasonable range) but they don't like their temperature to vary. They also seem to like to be on the kitchen counter or on my desk, where ever they can see me for a while each day. I think they need the stimulation. That said, I've had lousy luck lately. One died after 6 months and another after 3 months, but I think they never really recovered from a bout of ick. I also think there's something up with my tap water, so I'm looking into filtering it and setting up a system to let 5 gallons or so degas for 24hrs before I use it. All my bettas have come from pet stores.

Now I have tank buddies for work.

I tried to get pictures, but they're a little out of focus. Hopefully you can see what I'm talking about. The Betta Revive seems to be helping. I'd say there is less fluff tonight than there was last night.

My dragon boy came down with ich. I treated him with Betta Revive (In a small container floating in his old tank to keep the temp up/ constant) and he has come around. He was very poorly at the start. He wouldn't swim and when he did come up for air his swimming was very erratic. I boosted the temperature up from 25C to 29C over a day and he is now (a week later) much improved. I was doing daily changes of his water because his treatment tank was only a liter. I scrubbed out the 5 gallon tank he was in with salt, rinsed with boiling water and then filled the tank to float his treatment tank in. I treated the 5 gallon with Rid-ich plus to kill any parasites in the empty tank that escaped cleaning. I repeated the 5gallon tank cleaning yesterday (6 days later). I then filled the 5 gallon tank with 2.5 gallons of water, treated it with Betta revive and let my guy swim. (No more treatment tank). I've treated my other betta tanks with Rid Ich plus too, just in case the ich had spread. So, all my bettas have been treated with Rid-ich for ~5 days and then have been treated with Betta - Revive the past 3 days. They are all swimming and acting normally, however both my dragon boy and my crowntail boy have white fuzz on their tails. The crown tail boy has the worst case. The fuzz trails of the end of his rays, but I don't see any on his body. The Betta Revive doesn't seem to be helping. Neither have any white on their bodies. I thought the Rid-ich + was supposed to eliminate fungal infections as well, (Ingredients are formaldehyde and malachite green), but it hasn't done anything. The Betta revive also claims to cure all types of infections (neomycin sulfate, methylene blue, malachite green chloride), but I don't see any anti-fungal in there. I tried looking up similar cases and I think it might be columnaris. So I'm going to go buy some kanamycin sulfate. The treatment I found is 250-500mg per 20 gallons for 10 days. Does that sound right? If it is fungal, the local fish store guy suggested I try Pima-fix. I'm wary because I've read many many times that betta-fix & mella-fix organics coat the labyrinth organ, preventing the betta from breathing properly and end up being fatal. Sorry for the long post! So to sum up - 1) does kanamycin sound like the right treatment? 2) What's the best anti-fungal for bettas? Any input would be very much appreciated!

He looks similar to male I'm trying to get "in the mood"

Winging' It - that's one lovely fish!!!

If I put the mysis shrimp on a toothpick and drag them around the bettas seem to like them. Though they do seem to like the blood worms better. I had a little mishap with one of my microworm cultures and a fruit fly got in - so I now have fruit fry larva. Anyone have experience feeding fruit fly larva to bettas? I'm not sure how the long tail/ gender works in. I know the long tailed fish I own is male... Anyhow, I'm going to see how it goes this weekend. Wish me luck!

I put in a 1/2 styrofoam cup in the breeding tank this weekend and my male made his bubble nest! I was sooo excited. I released the female, but the male chased her and she hid for 8 hours. I can't see any stripes on her, but I'm not sure if they'd be clear on a dragon female. She's back in her own tank and I'm feeding her blood worms to see if that'll encourage her. Has anyone fed their bettas mysis shrimp?